Hadassah reaches deal with hospital director

NEW YORK (JTA) — Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America and the director general of its hospital in Jerusalem have reached what both sides are describing as an "amicable agreement" about the doctor’s future.

Shlomo Mor-Yosef and Hadassah officials met March 4 in New York, and apparently reached an agreement, but Hadassah is not making the decision public until later this month, according to a media release.

The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday that it learned that Mor-Yosef’s contract had been extended by about two years, through 2012, when the 14-story tower at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem Ein Kerem is set to open. Bar-Yosef was in on the planning of the tower since its inception.

The Post does not say under what parameters he would be staying.

Mor-Yosef had tendered his resignation in January, and it was accepted by the hospital’s board and Hadassah, but it caused a stir among the hospital’s staff.

The Post cited "those close to Mor-Yosef," as saying he was "satisfied" with the March 4 meeting’s outcome.

The doctors’ union at the hospital, in protesting the resignation, had claimed that Mor-Yosef was pushed out by Hadassah leaders in the United States. Hadassah officials have countered that Mor-Yosef resigned on his own.

Mor-Yosef has never said whether he was pushed out, but after a long silence, late last week he asked for a two-year extension on his contract, which expires at the end of this year.

Mor-Yosef was then summoned to New York to the meeting in New York with Hadassah President Nancy Falchuk. In advance of the meeting, the doctors’ union began demanding that Hadassah extend Mor-Yosef’s expiring contract by five years.